School’s home appliances to help migrant students adjust

A Central Middle School project to help its Pacific Islander community is receiving help in the form of thousands of dollars worth of home appliances.

On Wednesday, Anne Murphy, principal of Central Middle School, helped cut a ceremonial ribbon to unveil a room with three refrigerators, three electric ranges, three microwaves and two stacked washer-dryer units donated by Servco Pacific in what will become the school’s Takai Transition Center.

The donated appliances are part of a larger partnership between Servco Pacific and the Hawaii Department of Education to provide $200,000 worth of appliances and installation services to schools across the state, with Central being one of the first recipients.

They can be used to help the transition process of Pacific Islanders who just moved to Hawaii and might be experiencing difficulties satisfying basic needs.

“Though some of the students who will be serviced by this transition center may be homeless, a lot of them are in sheltered situations but in unstable sheltered situations,” she said during the unveiling, describing those unstable situations as crowded homes or inconsistent sleeping situations.

Originally meant to help military students transition to Hawaii, the centers are now being built in schools to help different communities transition to Hawaii, and for Central it’s Pacific Islanders — namely those from Chuuk, of the Federated States of Micronesia.

Chuukese students make up most of the 33% to 37% of students who are Pacific Islander at Central, which serves a total of about 400 students.

The appliances could help with the center’s transition effort by providing students with clean uniforms and other services.

“We have to ensure that we mitigate anything that gets in the way of students being successful,” said Christina Kishimoto, superintendent of the HIDOE. “If they need a safe place to be, if they need clean clothes, if they need food, if they need family training and support, then we need to provide those things.”

Murphy said the school, located downtown at the corner of Pali Highway and Vineyard Boulevard, has a high concentration of Micronesian students in part because of its proximity to low-income housing, which many recently migrated Micronesians use.

The school experiences low academic achievement, with many students underperforming by multiple grade levels, and the school itself needs some infrastructure work and more educational tools.

But Murphy has been able to use innovative methods, such as individualized online lesson plans using new laptops, to help students who don’t perform at grade level catch up. The school is also undergoing a paint job and received funding for new classroom furniture.

“We might be the small school in the middle of town that everybody drives by, but we’re doing some innovative things here, and we should be proud of it,” she said.